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joer
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Frankfurt, Germany
Apr 2000
time: 05:13
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Odd, but my impression of Alpha Centauri was a very different one than that of Alexander. I also think that the improvements he suggests are not very high on my list.
When I first saw Alpha Centauri, my immediate reaction was: Wooh, this is just a better Sci. Fi. Civ. I like it anyways, 'cause I like everything that looks like Civ. Only over time, I realized how much more depth the game offered.
You got Advancements, same as in Civ, and the Secret Projects are just another fancy (yet inappropriate: your secret projects are the least secret thing about what you are doing) name for a wonder. No big change there.
Deleting obsolote units is made much easier by the newer patches: It takes two clicks/unit. No biggie, if you custom design only the units you need, rather than letting the computer do it for you.
Different ship classes: You have two different chassis, which made for a multitude of different ships. Everything from destroyers (big gun, no defence) over escorts (all defence+AAA) and transports and carriers to all around battleships. Yes, you have subs, you just need to stick a special ability on your ships. Too bad the AI sees them anyways.
Names: Too much small scale battle focus. I want to build an empire and focus on strategy. Naming individual units makes the single unit seem too important. WHat comes next, naming my rec commons or network node?
SPecial Elite units: They already get a movement bonus and an attack/defense bonus of +50%. Also, you can upgrade them. Everything Alexander asks for.
Grouping/stacking units: YesYesYes. The one thing AC needs and CTP has.  I'd like to see that very much.
Double faction leaders: The developers have gone through a great deal of effort to characterize the different leader personalities and enhance the athmosphere and story. More personalities take that depth away. If you really don't like the pix, you can edit them easily anyways.
newspapers: They have the interludes, which are much more athmospheric than most newspaper coverage which I have seen on other strategic games. And they have neato SP movies. Not to mention that it's kinda boring to read the same old Glorious victory for University shard chopper in a close battle against a Spartan terraformer' headline for the 100th time.
Battle details: It lists the different mods and does the math for you. That's pretty cool and that's all I need. I can see how the battle is going in the big picture myself, and I can always check the overall unit stats of each faction. Though it would've been nice to see the losses split up in losses against different factions.
I think the author overlooked the possibilities of probe teams quite a bit:
They can plant genetic engineered viruses into cities. They can assassinate researchers. They can ´turn units around.
Going too much into detail there and develop different kinds of disases would lose once again focus on the strategy. You have nervegas. PB's are devastating enough as it is, no need for additional damage, IMO. I think those three options and the advantage it gives when using them is all that I need to explore the depth of atrocities.
I think naming people, even commanders, and doing assassinations of specific people goes again too much into micro-management. A militairy unit is the smallest representation I want to deal with. I don't want to manage the life of every single citizen.
I agree that the whole idea of 'space travel' should've been expanded. Even though we start ahead in the future, Civ:CTP has a much nicer focus on space building. Floating cities and space exploration are just two ideas.
So the only two improvements I agree with Alexander on are basicly the two aspects I like about Civ:CTP (unit stacking & space building). Otherwise, I wish they would improve the AI quite a bit. There's tons of room for improvement there and I don't think all of it would be hard to implement.
-joer.
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Adam_Smith
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The Raisin Capital of the World
Dec 1999
time: 05:13
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I stopped reading it after I realized that he doesn't know anything about Alpha Centauri. He should have played it more and read the article before passing judgement.
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joer
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Frankfurt, Germany
Apr 2000
time: 05:13
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WhiteElephants: Civ: CTP has a stacking unit concept.
Basicly, you can stack up to 9 units in one place and move them together. If one stack tries to move on to the field of another stack, the game switches into the combat screen, where both stacks fight each other, one as attacker and one as defender.
Militairy units can have, in addition to their attack and defence value a ranged combat value. That way, they can shoot off a couple of rounds from the second line at the front row of the enemy before the melee starts. Then the front rows fight each other until one is completely obligerated, then the units are reshuffled. Obviously, a ranged combat unit can only fire if it has another unit to hide behind, so that's where the tactics of making intelligent stacks comes into play: Throwing two artillery units or two marines together is much less effective than using one artillery and one marine.
Attack and defense modifiers are applied as usual to each individual unit.
Another good side effect in addition to the enhanced strategies is that charges are usually faster. You don't hang around at the gates of a city with one huge, unbeatable defender, banging masses of tanks against it, but gather your troops on one spot and then move in at once.
Probably the feature I miss most about ACT. Oh well, let's wait for Civ 3.
-joer.
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14-05-2000 05:54
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